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Christ’s Legacy of Peace, August 30
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world
giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
be afraid.
John 14:27
.
Before our Lord went to His agony on the cross He made His will.
He had no silver or gold or houses to leave His disciples. He was a poor
man, as far as earthly possessions were concerned. Few in Jerusalem were
so poor as He. But He left His disciples a richer gift than any earthly
monarch could bestow on his subjects. “Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you,” He said.... He left them the peace which had been His
during His life on the earth, which had been with Him amid poverty,
buffeting, and persecution, and which was to be with Him during His
agony in Gethsemane and on the cruel cross.
The Saviour’s life on this earth, though lived in the midst of conflict,
was a life of peace.... No storm of satanic wrath could disturb the calm of
that perfect communion with God. And He says to us, “My peace I give
unto you.”
Those who take Christ at His word and surrender their souls to His
keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing
of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His
presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest. The Lord says,
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee:
because he trusteth in thee” (
Isaiah 26:3
).
It is the love of self that destroys our peace. While self is alive we
stand ready continually to guard it from mortification and insult; but when
self is dead, and our life hid with Christ in God, we shall not take neglects
or slights to heart....
When we receive Christ into the soul as an abiding guest, the peace
of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds.
There is no other ground of peace than this. The grace of Christ, received
into the heart, subdues enmity; it allays strife and fills the soul with
love. He who is at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made
miserable.... The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the
peace of heaven and will diffuse its blessed influence all around.
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